Post 3 of 5: Learn from each other, please
I can address most points later, but I will say something simply:
I never claimed that these were the first instances of this technology occurring, I was trying to convey this is the first instance of their incorporation in a near peer to peer conflict.
10. In the latest ISW update, they said that Ukrainian troops likely consolidated positions and regrouped in northern Kherson Oblast after making major gains in the last 48 hours.
11. I suspect it is not very useful for
@TScott to think about war in Ukraine in the manner he has done. Maybe it’s a problem with his framing of it as a ‘peer’ conflict — perhaps better to call it high intensity warfare vs low intensity warfare. The Gulf War I (a war played out on CNN) is an example of a high intensity war.
(a) The use and the utility of drones for SEAD was demonstrated way back in 1982. Operation Mole Cricket 19 was the first time in history that a Western-air force destroyed a Soviet SAM network. It also became one of the bigger AWAC controlled air battles — demonstrating the superiority of Western CONOPS for air battle, compared to Soviet style ground control intercept.
(b) Mines. One of the biggest remover of limbs during war & for years after. Troops on this vehicle hit a mine & did an immediate action drill — as you would assume that the enemy is watching the mine field. It makes sense they were riding on top due to fear of mines.
(c) Other examples of high intensity warfare include the Yom Kippur War, and the Falklands War. Examples of low intensity warfare include the war against the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, ISAF in Afghanistan, or the Battle of Malawi in the Philippines. I will expand on these examples below.
Comparing a Ukraine force supplied by the major western powers in direct conflict with one of the historically largest military powers of the last 150 years to that of conflicts in Yemen and Syria, the differences are surely obvious?
12. The examples
@TScott cite are not very useful as contrasts and miss key pivot points in military history that affected weapons design, war-fighting tactics or doctrine.
13. The Falklands War as high intensity warfare, affected anti-air warfare training for Naval officers and part of the lessons learnt is the seriousness to which US Navy and other navies have taken towards damage control. This is a key pivot points in military history.
(a) The sinking of the Moskva is not just a reflection of Russian inability to learn from 1982 but also other prior naval warfare actions. The Soviets changed naval warfare in pioneering the use of anti-ship missiles. On 21 Oct 1967, INS Eilat was sunk in the Mediterranean in international waters off Port Said by Soviet-made missiles launched by Egyptian missile boats. INS Eilat became the first vessel to be sunk by a missile boat in wartime. It was an important milestone in naval surface warfare.
(b) At one level, the USS Cole bombing was a failure in intelligence and force protection. At another level, it was successful damage control. This was a reflection of the crew’s training and preparedness. Lessons learnt on damage control in 1982, continues to inform modern navies.
14. Yemen as low intensity warfare, is a side-show compared to some of the better historical examples, like the war against the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka that I cited as an example. The Tamil Tigers use of suicide bombers affected the way modern armies think about force protection and they also conducted air and naval attacks that inspired other terrorist groups. But the Tamil Tigers were not the ‘modern’ inventors of this form of suicide warfare. It was the Japanese kamikaze in World War II — both of which were neutralised by CONOPS adjustments.
15. War not going well? It seems that there is a power struggle going on within the Russian Govt/elite, centered on Sergei Shoigu, the Minister of Defence & Yevgeny Prigozhin (of the Wagner Group).
